Black ops group targets Sal DiCiccio

He is, we are told, the resident spendthrift on the Phoenix City Council — a liar who says he wants to get rid of the food tax yet used a sizable chunk of it to give the city manager an obscene pay raise.

“Call Councilman Sal DiCiccio at (602) 262-7491 and tell him to STOP using our tax dollars for extravagant pay raises and pension perks.”

So says the Campaign for Better Neighborhoods, a group with a red-white-and-blue sounding name and a black-ops mission. A group that I suspect supports those pay raises and pension perks — and, by the way, the food tax.

But then, you’re not supposed to know that.

The group’s front people — allies of the city’s most infamous food tax supporter, Mayor Greg Stanton — are using a loophole in Arizona’s campaign-finance laws to attack DiCiccio without having to tell you who they really are.

Two things are apparent:

1. They want Sal DiCiccio off the City Council.

2. They badly want Sal DiCiccio off the City Council.

Enough to try to put one over on voters, who in August will choose between DiCiccio and challenger Karlene Keogh Parks.

DiCiccio has long railed against city spending, opposing employee raises and perks and a pension system that now costs taxpayers nearly 1700 percent more than it did in 2003.

Parks, a businesswoman who was co-chair of Stanton’s transition team, filed to run against DiCiccio on March 5. The next day, the Committee for Better Neighborhoods incorporated as a non profit.

The group, which lists a north-central Phoenix UPS store as its address, hasn’t registered with the city as a political committee. It was formed by Ken Chapman, former executive director of the Maricopa County Democratic Party, with two other party activists: Leah Gillespie and Joe Larios, who worked on Stanton’s campaign and transition team and was appointed by Stanton to the powerful Board of Adjustment.

Chapman, the spokesman, didn’t return a call to ask when he plans to disclose the moneybags behind the campaign.

I suspect the answer is never.

The group describes itself as a “grassroots issue advocacy organization” which is code for it’s none of your business who we are, and thus what our motivations might be.

The old issues-advocacy dodge is one of my favorite loopholes in Arizona’s campaign-finance laws. It’s the one that says you’re not expressly advocating for a candidate’s defeat when you launch a campaign calling him a sleazebag who hates little children and fuzzy puppies. You’re just educating voters on an issue – in this case, that DiCiccio is a liar and a spendthrift — and thus, you don’t have to disclose who paid for the ads.

Think Committee for Justice and Fairness, which ran ads attacking Republican Tom Horne during the 2010 attorney-general race. It was only later that we found out the Committee for Justice and Fairness was really the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

And now comes the Campaign for Better Neighborhoods, which has thus far has sent out three hit pieces and set up SalDLiar.com – all aimed at telling voters that DiCiccio supported an outrageous $78,000-a-year pay raise for City Manager David Cavazos last year.

In fact, it was – outrageous, that is – and he did. So did Stanton and every member of the City Council other than Jim Waring. But the Campaign for Better Neighborhoods hasn’t targeted any of them, though the message seems pretty clear to anyone thinking of following DiCiccio.

The group launched its first hit piece just two days before the City Council was expected to reduce the food tax. Instead of reducing the tax, the council put off a decision until October.

DiCiccio believes the city’s employee unions are financing the campaign against him.

“It’s sending a message to the rest of the council of who’s in charge,” he said. “They’re sending a message that it’s not just about Sal. They’re sending a message that this is what happens if you don’t do what we want you to do.”

The question is, what how will the city reply?

DiCiccio’s lawyer, Timothy La Sota, has filed a complaint, contending the group is violating campaign-finance laws. City Clerk Cris Meyer says he will look into whether the group has crossed the line into electioneering.

“I’m assuming they’re being very careful and trying to argue that it’s not advocating for a candidate or to influence an election,” Meyer said. “But the closer they get to a campaign, to say it’s not advocacy becomes difficult.”

Or outright impossible. Of course, the Campaign for Better Neighborhoods is a campaign to get rid of DiCiccio. I defend their right to try.

But we should know who they are.

(Column published May 15, 2013, The Arizona Republic.)

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